As well as short, the video is low quality, so will use relatively lttle data if viewed on a smartphone via 3G, and looped, giving an impression similar to an animated GIF.

"Like Tweets, the brevity of videos on Vine (6 seconds or less) inspires creativity," Twitter said in a blog post.

Twitter acquired Vine, a start-up that was developing a standalone app to allow iPhone users to share video clips, in October. It will remain a separate brand, however, according to AllThingsD, and has its own Twitter account.

A standalone app for iPhone and iPod Touch has been introduced, but it will also allow Twitter members easily embed clips in their tweets. Commentators have labelled Vine “Instagram for video”, although since it was acquired by Facebook it is no longer possible to embed Instagram photographs in tweets.

Instagram withdrew from Twitter as the microblogging firm increasingly sought control over the multimedia content its members post and has restricted the data it shares with third parties.

Twitter aims to make its service more of a "destination" that visitors spend more time on, increasing the value of its advertising products.